This invention pertains to bags and, more particularly, to a bag assembly for collecting, containing, sealing, and disposing asbestos and other hazardous material.
In the past decade, government studies and numerous health reports have linked exposure to asbestos fibers with serious diseases including asbestoses, fibrosis, and lung cancer. Asbestoses has also been thought to cause or aggravate other maladies, such as emphysema, tuberculosis, bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, inflammations, and infections. Many people who worked in asbestos manufacturing plants or were employed installing asbestos insulation, have developed cancer and died.
Asbestos was commonly used as an insulator for houses, schools, factories, and public buildings. Asbestos fibers are readily circulated in the air and are dangerous if inhaled. The presence of asbestos in insulation in buildings may be harmful and injurious to the health, safety, and well being of children and adults alike, if not removed.
Asbestos contamination in buildings can be cured by removal. Asbestos removal, however, is not easy. Various industrial vacuum cleaners, loaders, and collectors have been tried but have not been very effective. Furthermore, removal of conventional containers, receptacles, hoppers, bins, or bags containing collected asbestos often expose the operator and surrounding personnel to concentrated amounts of the collected asbestos which can be dangerous, harmful, and even fatal.
Emissions of asbestos and other hazardous material are not only dangerous and troublesome, but are particularly aggravating and grievous in schools, houses, public buildings, and where relatively dust-free conditions and sterile environments are required, such as in medical supply houses and in food processing plants.
Over the years a variety of vacuum bags, bulk material bags, garbage bags, and other types of bags have been suggested for collecting and storing refuse and other material, Typifying some of these prior art bags are those found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,961,655; 4,010,784; 4,207,937; and 4,307,764. These prior art bags have not been very successful for safely collecting hazardous material, such as asbestos.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an improved bag assembly which overcomes most, if not all, of the preceding problems.